La Liga 2019/20: Sevilla vs Celta – tactical analysis

RC Celta de Vigo travelled to the south of Spain to the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium where they took on Sevilla FC. The Andalusian club under Julen Lopetegui enjoyed a positive start to the season with wins over Espanyol and Granada in their opening games moving them to the top of the La Liga table. Celta faced a stiff opener against Real Madrid, but looked strong after their upset of Valencia. In this tactical analysis we see how these two teams clashed in a very interesting battle of tactics with the game culminating in a stalemate.

Lineups

Sevilla shaped up in Lopetegui’s traditional 4-3-3 formation sticking with the defensive partnership of Daniel Carriço and Diego Carlos at the back, despite Carlos’ minor injury in the past week. The pace on the flanks was provided by Sergio Reguilón on the left and Jesús Navas on the right. Fernando Reges organised the buildup between Carriço and Carlos and act as the central pivot. Éver Banega and Joan Jordan drove the midfield in the centre filling spaces left by the overlapping fullbacks. Luuk de Jong played the target man up top, while Nolito provided the attacking threat on the left establishing his rising chemistry with Reguilón since the beginning of this season. Lucas Ocampos was rested after utilising him for 90 minutes against Granada despite his injury. Hence the attacking responsibility on the right fell on the shoulders of ex-Barca man, Munir El Haddadi.

Celta de Vigo played a 4-4-2 with the combination of Gabriel Fernández and Iago Aspas at the front. Brais Méndez and Denis Suárez played as the wide midfielders who were tasked of breaking into central areas and overload the Sevilla midfield in attacking phases while Stanislav Lobotka and Fran Beltran formed a two-man central midfield partnership. At the back, it was the job of Kevin Vazquez, Joseph Aidoo, Néstor Araujo and Lucas Olaza to hold the line and absorb and contain this Sevilla attack at the Sanchez-Pizjuan.

Story of the stats

The game could be broken down into four phases. Sevilla’s strategy was to spend the first 20 minutes engaging in a high-octane pressing starting well into Celta’s half putting a lot of pressure upon their backline. They would also aggressively counter-press upon losing the ball and continue keeping possession in wide areas after winning it back. This strategy worked quite effectively. Although throughout the game, Sevilla had 63% possession, in the first 20 minutes they held a whopping 83.6% possession registering 9 shots on target and completing 161 of their 519 total passes during the game.